Many homes enjoy private landscaping. Lawns, trees, shrubs and plants of many varieties can be used by homeowners or landscapers to create a pleasing personal outdoor environment. But plants, even of the desert variety, do require water to survive.
Many homes therefore are equipped with irrigation control systems in an effort to help the homeowner or landscape caregiver maintain the landscape plants. In their simplest form, a controller can be a set of valves that are manually activated when watering is desired. Manual operation is far from convenient in most settings so such control systems are not highly desired.
Often control systems are equipped with a timer so that valve operation can be established both for a given time of day and for a given duration. Establishing this watering schedule may be a tedious task involving tiny switches, codes and sequences of button presses upon a keypad. Entering a wrong button press or sequence can result in an undesired watering schedule that may or may not be immediately evident to the programmer. If not discovered, such errant programming may result in far too much water being provided, potentially resulting in not only water waste, but also overwatering if not flooding and damage land and structures. Too little water may result in plant death.
Adjustments to such watering systems are not easily made, so once a schedule is established many homeowners file the instruction manual away and never opt to change the schedule. As weather patterns change and perhaps even plants are replaced, grow or are removed, the failure to adjust the watering schedule may well result in waste of water resources as well less then desired care for the plants. Moreover the established watering schedule is maintained throughout the year, regardless of rain or heat.
Other shortcomings abound as well. Typical irrigation control systems operate in a linear fashion, which is to say that they operate a first zone for one duration, then move to activate a second zone for another duration, and then a third zone for yet another duration. Skipping a zone or watering zones out of order on different days may not be possible, and even if possible may not be easily achieved if the owner has misplaced his or her operating manual.
Further, some plants such as young plants, fresh grass and seeds for example often require frequent watering in short durations. Typical watering systems operating in a linear zone by zone fashion may not permit multiple repeated watering schedules.
Should a zone malfunction such systems do not inform the homeowner in any way, such that the first indication of a problem is typically the owner's observation of either flooding or dead dry plants.
Providing larger display panels on irrigation control systems may well help the owner/operator in programming and control, but such larger displays also increase costs. Also, as most irrigation control systems are placed in garages or closets, regardless of the display size and quality, actually viewing the display easily and in a comfortable environment may not be easy for all homeowners and operators.
Some watering systems have attempted to address some of these issues, such as for example U.S. Pat. No. 7,010,396 to Ware et al. entitled Irrigation Controller With Embedded Web Server, U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,239 to Sieminski entitled Internet-Enabled Central Irrigation Control, and US Patent Application 2009/0281672 to Pourzia entitled Weather Responsive Irrigation Systems and Methods.
In Ware, U.S. Pat. No. 7,010,396, an irrigation controller with an embedded web server activates irrigation devices in accordance with an event schedule. More specifically, “the controller 330 also contains an embedded web server that serves one or more web pages (not shown) to the browser equipped client(s) 320.” (Col. 6 lines 31-35).
Although perhaps beneficial in some settings, this web-serving ability of the Ware irrigation controller raises the complexity of the irrigation controller both in terms of it's fabrication process as well as it's method of use. Updates to features or corrections of software bugs must be made directly to the controller, which of course requires that the controller be on-line and in direct connection with the Internet. For users who do not wish to avail themselves of the Internet, Ware is impractical.
In Sieminski, U.S. Pat. No. 6,832,239, an irrigation controller is coupled to a wide area network, such as the Internet. More specifically, Sieminski teaches that a user does not communicate with the Sieminski irrigation control except through the Internet or via a stand alone controller, shown in Sieminski FIG. 2, which as illustrated and described appears typical of the existing display and button systems of conventional irrigation controllers.
As taught by Sieminski, the user establishes the schedule for watering with a web bases server that then transmits the schedule back through the Internet to a wireless carrier 108 which in turn is in communication with a plurality of wireless irrigation controllers 110.
Moreover, Sieminski is most applicable to a commercial setting where watering stations can be far apart such that wireless communication between the irrigation controller and the watering station is desirable. Centralization of the watering schedule with an Internet connected database may be beneficial in some settings, but if Internet access is not available or desired, the watering schedule cannot be accessed and implemented. Indeed a user of Sieminski must have not only a computer system, but also Internet access even if he or she is directly proximate to the watering area and controller if the web-based interface is to be used instead of the traditional on-device display and button system.
In Pourzia, US Patent Application 2009/0281672, the emphasis is for a weather responsive system that is truly composed of two key elements—the irrigation controller itself and it's access point. As is shown and described by Pourzia with respect to at least FIGS. 1 and 2, a user communicates with the controller 12 by way of a wireless access point 16 that is either coupled to the users computer (FIG. 1) or to a router (FIG. 2), with this second option being preferred so that the controller 12 can receive new instructions based on weather monitoring systems.
Moreover, all control is accomplished through the additional access point that is specific to the Pourzia system—not a pre-existing wireless access point such as may be found in many homes already. Further, all control is via web-browser interaction, with the irrigation controller having a dedicated and specific user interface system 56 which is again comprised of a typical output device such as a liquid crystal display and an input device such as a keypad as with many conventional irrigation controllers.
In addition, the master schedule is held by the client application and not the controller. This client application can be deployed to the user's computer or to the access point. Of course, if it is maintained by the user's computer, then no other systems can modify the system unless they are permitted access to the user's computer, which also must be on. This appears to present a potential problem. A user might well update the watering schedule via his or her personal computer and then shut the computer off. Later, an ASP server may attempt to update the schedule in response to developments overnight, such as for example morning rain, that the user was not aware of. However, as the master schedule is held by the browser application and not the controller, the adjustments attempted by the Internet based ASP server will not be reflected in the users master schedule, if it is even implemented as the client application was accessible. Pourzia does also teach that the access point can host the client application—which in turn would require greater complexity of the access point.
Moreover, many attempts have been made in repeated efforts to provide improved irrigation control in a simple and easily adjustable fashion. Although certainly necessary for the maintenance of plants, most homeowners and or other users do not see the watering system as being a priority and therefore are unlikely to embrace expensive systems that may also have multiple specialized components and or requirements.
Hence there is a need for a system and method that is capable of overcoming the above identified challenges.